Link to Walking On on Streaming
Have you ever felt like you were walking a path created by your own choices, only to look back and ask, “Ummm… what were you thinking?” I’m not talking about life-altering sins like infidelity, addiction or embezzlement. I’m talking about sincerely trying to make the right decisions in life and career, then waking up one day, looking around, and realizing, “Oops… I don’t think I got it all right.”
That’s not to say you didn’t pray, think things through, or seek wise counsel. You genuinely tried to make the best decisions you could at the time. But our own sin – and the sins committed against us – can take a toll in ways we never expected.
Then there’s another perspective: the perspective of Job. Maybe God allowed your path to unfold for reasons you don’t understand or particularly like. Or maybe your pride and your ambitions weren’t as closely aligned with his purposes as you thought. Whether, like Job, you found yourself caught in a conversation between God and Satan, or like the prodigal son or Jonah, you were running from something, here you are.
So… what do you do?
Okay, I’m not really talking about you. I’m talking about where I was when I wrote this song.
I reference Daniel 5:27 because I felt like the scales of my life were being weighed and I was coming up short—judged, even punished, if you will. But like Job (apart from the ordinary daily battle against sin), I was flummoxed. I genuinely felt like I was walking with God and trying to serve him faithfully, yet the valley was deep and I could see it was going to be a long climb back to higher ground.
That was four years ago.
I’m still in that valley.
Maybe I’m beginning to ascend, but I’m not out of it yet.
This song has been a lifeline for me over the past few years. Maybe it will be for you too. Sometimes there is no way through but through. You just keep walking on. Just keep walking on.
One of the greatest challenges for me in those early days—both intellectually and spiritually—was allowing myself to receive relief. I felt so low and so attacked that I convinced myself I didn’t deserve anything that might bring comfort. That was the evil one speaking lies over my life.
My wife reminded me of a story from The Pastor’s Wife by Sabina Wurmbrand. While traveling across America to raise awareness of the persecution of Christians under Communism in Romania, she was overwhelmed with guilt over the relative luxury they were experiencing. As she and her husband traveled in relative comfort—with good meals, transportation, and kind hospitality—she couldn’t stop thinking about those who were suffering terribly back home. Her husband reminded her that they were simply trying to be faithful to what God had called them to do in that season, and he said something that has stayed with me ever since:
“The honey is for the saints too.”
You’ll hear an echo of that line in Walking On.
The final verse speaks of brighter days and hope. Part of me wants that to mean brighter days here on earth, and perhaps sometimes it does. But ultimately, my gaze is fixed on heaven. The Christian’s hope isn’t that everything in our lifetime will be made right here on earth. Our hope is eternity with Christ, where there will be no more pain, no more tears, and no more death.
This is the story behind the first song in the Bring Back Yesterday series. It ended up being longer than I expected, but I hope somewhere in these words you find a little encouragement to keep walking on.
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